EAA Aviation Museum

The EAA AirVenture Museum is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of aircraft in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The museum is located at the Oshkosh airport. The museum was built in 1953 by a couple of people who wanted to display their hand-made planes. The museum is the only Experimental Aircraft Association museum in central Wisconsin. The collection of planes contains over one hundred fifty planes and is displayed throughout the museum. The AirVenture Museum is a key tourist attraction in Oshkosh and hosts the EAA AirVenture event held in the summer months.

Background Information

The museum is open all year round with exceptions of a few holidays. The museum is full of volunteers and contains a large variety of planes due to donations. Anyone who is a plane lover, interested in planes, or is just out for the day can drop by the museum for a small fee and see a huge collection of aircraft. Some of their airplanes include the Church Midwing, Funk B, and Monnett Moni. One of the museum's most popular planes is the Swallow OX-5. The Swallow OX-5 was designed for warfare and was built by Matty Laird. This plane is still being used to provide rides to people coming to the museum after 80 years in service. Infact, anyone who wants to have the opportunity to ride in a plane during their museum visit is allowed. Once you have taken a plane ride offered by the museum, you can receive an EAA Eagle Flight Certificate and become a member of the World's Largest Logbook, located in the museum. There is also a program for kids called the Young Eagle membership.

Young Eagle Program

If you are between the ages of eight and seventeen, this is the program for you. When you become a part of the Young Eagle membership, you receive a free plane ride and get a certificate saying you are a member for life. There are currently over one million members and this list is continually growing. You will also receive newsletters, information on upcoming events, and have a chance to win scholarships. The museum currently has their own newsletter called the "Sport Aviation", which invoves the latest news, upcoming events, award recognitions, and other important features about the museum. At all of EAA's events, Young Eagles are invited to participate and are usually recognized. There are also Young Eagle learning sessions available at these events. Being a part of this program lets kids learn facts about planes and gives them an opportunity to see what an aircraft aviator does.

Tours

There are several options of how to explore the EAA AirVenture Museum. There are self-guided tours, group tours, virtual tours, or you can just check the museum out by yourself. For groups, there are three optional tours. First is the "Kitty Hawk Tour" which includes a "basic guided tour of the museum and a showing of the movie Air Show". A second group tour is the "Air Mall Tour" which can be taken only at night and shows tourists what the earliest days of aircraft were like. The third group option is the "Barnstormer Tour". This tour contains not only a showing of the museum, but also airplane rides. The self-guided tour can either be by just yourself or with an EAA staff member. Most of the EAA Museum staff are volunteers that know a great deal about planes and can help you with any questions or concerns. The virtual tours are fairly new. Online and in the museum, you can look in depth at various planes contained in the museum. There is also a movie theater and a library at the museum for anyone who wants to learn more about the planes or other parts of the museum.

Special Programs

The EAA AirVenture Museum is unique due to their variety of optional activities. Get a group of people together and participate in one of the museum's events. You can have paper airplane contests, build rockets, have the museum to your group for the night, or earn Scout badges by just coming to the museum. Also, the museum contributes planes and funds to sponser the EAA AirVenture event held throughout the summer. Many of the museum's planes are on display or flown in during the air shows during the event. One of the biggest additions coming this summer is that of the Pioneer Airport. The new airport will "take tourists back to what flying was in the earliest days of planes and aircraft." A second addition that will be open to the public will be located in the Innovations Gallery. Included will be information about future aircraft. Another program tourists can be a part of is when plane flyers come in to give a talk on a specific type of plane. Because the museum has so many different planes to view, they get many speakers.